Following a 2015 indictment and subsequent guilty plea on charges of wire fraud back in February, yesterday William Apostelos was sentenced to fifteen years in prison.

Apostelos and his wife Connie Coleman operated a $70 million Ponzi scheme, bilking around 480 investors out of over $20 million dollars. [Continue reading…]

Following an indictment on June 14th, Richard Maike and several top Infinity 2 Global affiliates have been arraigned.

At an arraignment hearing held on June 30th, Maike, Richard Anzalone, Faraday Hosseinipour, Doyce Barnes Dennis Dvorin and Jason Syn were arraigned yesterday. [Continue reading…]

A fortnight ago news broke that Cleber Rene Rizerio Rocha, better known as the TelexFree money mattress mule, wanted evidence obtained against him suppressed.

Cleber claims statements he made after his arrest were obtained “in violation of (his) Fifth Amendment right to counsel”. Evidence obtained from his phone meanwhile was obtained “without a warrant and without consent”.

In a June 27th response filing, the DOJ paint a different story. [Continue reading…]

Active Matrix provide no information on their website about who owns or runs the business.

The Active Matrix website domain (“autoactivematrix.com”) was privately registered on May 27th, 2017.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Continue reading…]

MMM Dubai provide no information on their website about who owns or runs the business.

The MMM Dubai website domain (“mmmdubai.com”) was privately registered on October 20th, 2016.

MMM Dubai provide a link to UK incorporation for MMM Dubai Limited.

MMM Dubai Limited was incorporated with the UK Companies House on October 24th, 2016, four days after the MMM Dubai website domain was registered.

Four MMM Dubai Limited Directors are listed, all using an address belonging to a furniture store in London.

I wasn’t able to find any information on any of the four Directors outside of the incorporation, likely suggesting the entire filing is bogus.

Supporting this is a badly photoshopped certificate of incorporation for MMM Dubai Limited, purportedly issued by the Dubai Financial Services Authority.

As above, someone has photoshopped “MMM Dubai Limited” onto a certificate issued in May, 2014.

The alignment of the company name doesn’t match up and when compared to a legitimate certificate, the font for “MMM Dubai Limited” is different.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Continue reading…]

CoinMD provide no information on their website about who owns or runs the business.

The CoinMD website domain (“coinmd.io”) was privately registered on May 3rd, 2017.

Further research reveals Tom McMurrain citing himself as CEO of the company in the CoinMD compensation plan.

Why this information is not provided on the CoinMD website is unclear.

Tom McMurrain (right) first appeared on BehindMLM’s radar as a prominent US investor in the OneCoin Ponzi scheme.

McMurrain stopped actively promoting OneCoin around mid-May, shortly after registering the CoinMD website domain. Whether McMurrain is still a OneCoin affiliate or not is unknown.

On the regulatory side of things, McMurrain is a convicted felon.

Between 1997 and 2000 McMurrain stole $9 million from 80 investors in a pay-day loan Ponzi scheme he called Emergency One Cash Card Inc.

In September 1997, McMurrain, a former securities dealer, formed a company called “Emergency One Cash Card Inc.”

The company made two- to four-week loans of between $300 and $500 to low-income borrowers at high interest rates (between 22 percent and 25 percent a month) using car titles as collateral.

McMurrain began the business with a store front at Tower Place in Buckhead. Eventually, he expanded the company to locations in Buford, Smyrna and Decatur, Ga., and a holding company called “Emergency One Holding Corp.”

McMurrain also created a boiler-room operation, “American Call Center,” so potential customers could borrow money by phone.

Over time, McMurrain employed 10 to 20 people to manage the storefronts and administer the operations, while McMurrain solicited investors to pump money into his companies.

McMurrain promised potential investors a 15 percent to 36 percent a rate of return annually on their investment — a rate much higher than available commercially.

McMurrain failed to tell investors his business was operating at a loss and the business was only able to make monthly interest payments to previous investors with funds invested by later investors.

He also did not disclose he used their investments to fund non-pay day loan businesses, including a loan of $700,000 to another McMurrain company, “Global E Tutor Inc.”

McMurrain also used investor funds to make uncollateralized loans to friends, and McMurrain failed to disclose to the investors that he spent $1.3 million of their investments in day trading and on a lavish lifestyle for himself.

In August and September of 2000, the business failed and McMurrain’s business declared bankruptcy in late 2000.

When the company went bankrupt, McMurrain and his immediate family fled to Central America.

After Bananama Republic reported on two arrest warrants issued against McMurrain, he sued them.

McMurrain lost the case and appealed, but before the appeal was decided on was arrested in 2004 on the aforementioned warrants.

Other cases included boating under the influence, assault, more fraud — McMurrain ran a high profile robbers den in Panama under the name “San Cristobal Land Development”.

In 2005 McMurrain was sentenced to 87 months in prison and had to pay back $7.5 million he’d stolen.

McMurrain was released in 2009/2010, after which he signed up as an affiliate with the TVI Express.

In 2010 McMurrain’s home state Georgia declared TVI Express was a pyramid scheme.

Of late McMurrain has been heavily involved in the cryptocurrency niche. The only MLM opportunity I’m aware McMurrain has been promoting however is OneCoin.

OneCoin ceased processing affiliate Ponzi points ROI withdrawals back in January. Since then affiliates have only been able to earn pyramid recruitment commissions, so I guess here we are with CoinMD.

Read on for a full review of the CoinMD MLM opportunity. [Continue reading…]

For US based Zeek Rewards net-winners who have thus far failed to pay back money they stole, it appears their time is up.

Following the granting of Summary Judgment against the same net-winners last November, on June 27th the Zeek Rewards Receiver has now filed for Final Judgement. [Continue reading…]

Back in April the SEC obtained default judgement against Trudy Gilmond.

As a top promoter who stole over $1.7 million dollars from Zeek Rewards victims, Gilmond was sued by the SEC in June, 2015.

The case had been progressing to trial, however Gilmond (right) failed to cooperate with the SEC on discovery issues from late 2016.

This, the SEC claimed, prevented them from ‘completing fact discovery, understanding her defenses, and preparing an expert report.‘

Despite a warning from the Judge and order to show cause as to why default judgement shouldn’t be entered, Gilmond continued to ignore proceedings against her. [Continue reading…]

To ensure six top Indian OneCoin scammers arrested in April do not post bail and flee, the Mumbai EOW filed a charge sheet against the accused last week. [Continue reading…]

CryptoGold provide no information on their website about who owns or runs the business.

The CryptoGold website domain (“krypto-gold.com”)  was registered on July 29th, 2016. Michael Bauer is listed as the owner, with an address in Cologne, Germany also provided.

CryptoGold has another website set up at “cryptogold.de”, on which Sascha Senft is listed as an additional Director of the company. This website also has a PO Box address for CryptoGold Limited in Dubai.

It is likely CryptoGold exists in Dubai in name only and is being operated from Germany.

Possibly due to language barriers, I was unable to find any additional information on either Michael Bauer or Sascha Senft.

As always, if an MLM company is not openly upfront about who is running or owns it, think long and hard about joining and/or handing over any money. [Continue reading…]